Carotid Artery Disease
Carotid artery disease, also called carotid artery stenosis, occurs when the blood vessels in your neck that provide your brain with most of its blood supply become blocked. Because carotid stenosis is a common cause of stroke, treating and preventing it is critical to prevent a stroke. At NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, our cerebrovascular disease team includes experts who care for people with carotid stenosis. Not every patient with carotid stenosis needs a procedure as part of their treatment; we'll monitor you and let you know if you need treatment to resolve the blockage.
Customized Carotid Stenosis Therapy
If you have carotid stenosis, your treatment may include:
- Medication. If your blockage is small, we may give you medications to reduce blood clotting, lower the levels of cholesterol and fats in your blood, and reduce your blood pressure. For some people, this is the only treatment needed.
- Endarterectomy. We perform this surgery to remove the plaque inside your narrowed carotid artery.
- Stent insertion. Our interventional specialists insert a stent (a small mesh support tube) at the site of the blockage in your carotid artery through a flexible tube (catheter) placed into an artery in your groin and threaded through the blood vessels of your body to the blockage. The stent stays in your carotid artery to provide a channel through which blood can flow more freely.
- Bypass revascularization. Our surgeons reroute the blood supply around the blockage to bypass the obstruction in your carotid artery.